http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-925829.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – The race for Florida's chief financial officer looked like a lock for Republican Senate President Jeff Atwater - unopposed until January, when an obscure former lawmaker jumped in. Now Democrat Loranne Ausley is campaigning against what she calls the "pay-to-play" culture at the Legislature, while Republicans say she's a tax-and-spend liberal. Margie Menzel reports.
It didn't look like an even match. Atwater, after nearly two years as Senate president, was far better known statewide and has easily out-raised Ausley. He now has $4.1 million to her $1.5 million. But a Mason-Dixon poll out Friday shows the race to be the tightest of the Cabinet contests, with Atwater edging Ausley 29 to 27 percent and nearly 4 in 10 voters undecided.
"This is someone who's running on a platform of accountability and transparency," said Ausley of Atwater. "Well, let's be accountable and transparent."
Ausley wants the Republican Party of Florida to expand its audit of GOP leaders who used party-paid American Express cards. She called the audit released Sept. 18 "purely political," saying it left out records that reflect poorly on GOP candidates, including nearly $50,000 in charges by Atwater from 2007-2009. But RPOF's new spokesman, Dan Conston, says the audit's focus was former party chairman Jim Greer, who was tapped by Gov. Charlie Crist in 2007.
"...because those were the years that the profligate spending went on," Conston said. "And the audit actually does discuss how in previous years, there was no reason to believe that profligate, wasteful spending and personal spending was going on. It was a well-managed organization until Jim Greer and Charlie Crist took it over."
In fact, as Atwater said in a statement, he'd called for the party to release his AmEx records back in February. And the Miami Herald called him a "cheap date" after Greer was ousted and the party released some of the records. Conston also notes that the audit examined 150,000 documents, calling it "independent and very comprehensive."
"The audit DID examine Mr. Atwater. It found that he had done nothing wrong," said Conston. "And Loranne Ausley knows that. And the reason she continues to bring this up is that she can't defend her record of higher taxes, as 'Costly Ausley' points out."
'Costly Ausley' is the name of the web site the RPOF put up on Sept. 16. "Ausley even voted six times to tax your savings," it says. "Just like her liberal friends in Washington, Ausley can't get enough of our money." But the St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald fact-checking operation, PolitiFact, rated this claim "False."
"I know the budget process," said Ausley. "I have been a fighter all my life. I stood up when I was in the Legislature and I will stand up as a member of Florida's Cabinet to see that we are accounting for every single dime, so that ultimately we can invest in the things that matter."
Atwater campaign spokesman Brian Hughes points out that the Senate president was praised by the watchdog group Florida PIRG for the state budget website, transparencyflorida.gov. Hughes also says Ausley isn't talking about what she'd do as CFO, preferring to attack Atwater.
"Daily, she's sending out press releases or holding press conferences, where the whole purpose of the event or the communication seems to be to say something about Jeff Atwater rather than herself," Hughes said. "Jeff Atwater has a long and clear record of working for transparency and accountability in government."
Ausley has indeed kept up a drumbeat about what she calls "influence-peddling in Tallahassee." She's criticized Atwater for allowing the Legislature to okay the new $48 million 1st District Court of Appeal building and the loss of 71 state jobs that she says funded the $110 million, private Blackwater River Correctional Institution, the so-called "Prison to Nowhere." She also says Atwater has turned down opportunities for a CFO debate, which Conston strongly denies.
"Look, the campaigns discuss daily with voters the various positions that are important to Floridians, and how to get people back to work, and Sen. Atwater's campaign does that every day," Conston said.
The Palm Beach Post reported Wednesday that Atwater wouldn't agree to an Oct. 5 debate in Gainesville sponsored by the Florida Press Association. Currently no CFO debate is scheduled, but third parties are trying to broker one.